Monday-Thursday, 2/9-12

2/9-12

Monday we are back at school. I have developed a cold and not wanting to rise early to walk, share a taxi with Annieck to school and back. I do the same on Tuesday and Wednesday. The weather has been fairly nice, but Tuesday was cloudy, windy, dusty, and very cool. Having a cold and the cool weather make me I wished I had a heavier sweater. It seems that there is a cold going round the school—several of the students are have cold symptoms or complained of feeling sick over the weekend. My teacher, Yvonne, has a cold too. I am able to fight mine off with lots of water, Echinacea and gargling with Listerine. Yvonne is not and is sick on Thursday. She canceled her classes which means both of my classes.

 

Having class cancelled was lucky for me in one way as I had actually skipped the Egyptian Arabic class in the morning to sleep in. Wednesday night I was up late with Nicole at a concert by the Qithara Ensemble conducted by Alfred Gamil. The concert was at the Gumhuriyya Theater in downtown Cairo. Nicole was taking photographs and I videotaped the concert. It was a small ensemble of violin, oud (lute), qanun (large lap harp), nay (bamboo flute), piano, viola, bass, and riq (Arabic tambourine), along with 4 wonderful singers—2 women and 2 men. The musical selections were from Egypt’s Golden Age- mostly from the 30’s and 40’s, which I really enjoy-- and the singers were wonderful.

 

Getting to the concert was another adventure! Traffic in Cairo from 5-Midnight any day of the week is horrific, and 5-10 PM the heaviest. I walked several blocks before finding a taxi that 1-wasn’t standing still in traffic, 2- didn’t already have passengers, and 3-was willing to fight through the traffic to get me to the other side of town where I needed to be. It was a 45-minute ride, or park and ride might be more like it. As I was sitting in the taxi, I realized that I had spent my last 10 EP at lunch in the school cafeteria because they didn’t have change and that l only 50 EP bills and a few 1 EP bills in my wallet for what should be a 15-20 EP cab ride t most. I knew that if I tried to ask for change, the driver would likely plead that he had none and I would be stuck with an expensive cab ride. Thank goodness for Nicole’s cell phone! I called her and she sent Esham out to greet me when I arrived at the theater. Being Egyptian, he was able to wrangle change from the driver for me and I had a 20 EP ride rather than 50 EP. Thank you Esham! After the concert, Nicole, Esham, and Lilly all went out to eat but I took myself and my cold home to bed. This time I had the right change for the ride.

 

Having slept in Thursday morning, I was feeling better. The sun was out again and the day was warming up nicely. So when I got to school and found out that my classes had been canceled (along with my guilt for skipping the early one), I took advantage of the time by walking back to the flat. With my trusty map, I negotiated my way through a new part (for me) of town. It took me about 40 minutes on mostly quiet streets. Even on back streets, walking in Cairo is an obstacle course. On the sidewalks you maneuver around construction, de-construction, trash, signs, trees, and even parked cars. Some times it is easier to walk in the street, but then you have to watch for the moving cars, trucks, donkey and horse carts, and other pedestrians doing the same thing. I almost thought I had plotted a wrong course when I came upon the 26th of July Street and realized that it was really a fenced-in highway! But, with a little searching left and right, I found the pedestrian underpass and was back on course. This is a pedestrian city, it had to be there.

 

The girls ask if I get harassed, which is really to strong a word, while walking-- and I don’t. Sometimes they hear whistles and catcalls. The girls are blond, too, but I have found that by throwing a scarf, even loosely, over my blond hair, the whistles stop. I also wear skirts to mid-calf and loose tops while they wear jeans and no scarves. I know the scarf helps, because I see the “looks” more when I don’t wear it. It is nice to blend in as much as a blond American can in  city of dark eyes, hair, and skin. On the other hand, Nicole and Lilly don’t get the catcalls much either, but they’re brunettes and some Egyptians do have lighter hair and skin. The girls and I stand out a bit more. Like in the US, how you dress can affect how you are treated by others- ex. nice clothes vs grubs in the US, scarf vs no scarf here. Boys will be boys anywhere, but imagine if a simple thing like a head scarf would reduce unwanted attention back home... The scarf has another major benefit too, it keeps the Cairo dust out of your hair! 

 

While I am on scares, I have noticed, depending where you are in Cairo, more of the Egyptian women and girls wearing headscarves than my visit in 2002. I have also noticed that  among the young women it has become quite a fashion statement. I see a lot more fancy scarves and ways of wrapping them then I did before. The other thing I have noticed is that there are more older women who have adopted the Saudi-style abya and face veil, some of them quite fancy with colored sequins and beads. In Zamalek, where there are a lot of Embassies, foreigners and wealthy Egyptians, Western dress is still very prevalent.